Dream Catcher
by Revanant Dragoon
Summary: Was it a dream? A warning from beyond? Or was it... a memory? For Ikari Shinji, it doesn't matter - he's more focused on what he can use it for: a second chance. -One-shot- -Evangelion/NGE-Gakuen Datenroku/Persona 3- -Drabble-


Disclaimer: …c'mon people, you know the drill. "Don't own; don't sue" – rinse and repeat.

* * *

_What happens when the dream-catcher is up-ended, and all those nightmares spill into your head?_

_Do you grit your teeth, and try to keep what little shards of sanity you have left, like a dragon guarding its hoard?_

_Or do you plunge into the abyss?_

**Dream Catcher**

_**'**__Will to fight, huh?'_

Ikari Shinji wasn't dense, no matter what Sohryu said. Hell, in most cases he was pretty damn sharp, thankyouverymuch. He had to be, after all, in order to stay in the Nerv Academy.

His problem was, in this case, that he'd spent far too much time hanging out with Kensuke. During the entire explanation that Kaworu had given him, Shinji was expecting his conspiracy-loving otaku friend to pop up out of nowhere and confirm his suspicions that this was all some big special-effects show that Kensuke and the rest had managed to put on.

Even though the thought of Ayanami being like Kensuke made him want to shoot something. Repeatedly.

But Kensuke hadn't shown up. And now he was crouched in an alleyway, shielding a little girl who had the supreme misfortune of being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time, and watching Sohryu duking it out with this... 'angel.'

'_Kensuke, now would be a really good time to show up!'_

But Kensuke apparently begged to differ, staying resolutely wherever the hell he was and denying Shinji an escape from this nightmare.

Shinji stiffened as an explosion rattled the teeth in his head. He staggered, then whirled just in time to see Asuka's body reach the top of its parabolic arc, soaring away from the attack.

_'Do or die, Ikari.' _He thought grimly, bringing the pistol up to aim at the the 'angel' swooping in on Sohryu...

_"It's just a toy in that form!"_

Shinji ground his teeth. How the hell was he supposed to use it, then?

_"The Eva is your will."_

...Wait. Wouldn't that mean that he already knew how to use it? Instinctively, that is. It was already 'encoded' into his DNA, right? So he just had to... do what was natural. And hope that he hadn't been watching too many anime.

He let his arm hang loosely at his side, and focused all his thoughts on attacking the winged woman. Then he gasped, as fear echoed through his head. Somehow... somehow he just _knew _that he would lose himself if he went through with this.

...But that made no sense, and that damn winged woman was getting closer and closer to Sohryu by the second.

_'I mustn't run away.'_ He told himself, as his arm moved again.

Cold steel pressed against his temple.

_'I mustn't run away.'_

The fear squirmed and leaped in his gut.

_**'I mustn't run away.'**_

The angel- _'Ramiel?_' -roared in triumph.

_**'I must...'**_

He pulled the trigger.

"Evoke."

The word was tugged from his lips, just as the muzzle exploded. And then...

...The world shattered...

...into a millions pieces of broken glass-

-that were strewn across the black abyss, shifting and swirling like ocean waves, and something surged from the darkness below into the fractured world and it was large and fast and monstrous and..

...and oh so familiar.

_'Warm' _was the first thought that made its way into Shinji's head. _'Soft' _followed swiftly after that.

His third thought, however, was something more akin to _'My, that sounds __**just **__like something monstrously large breathing down my neck.'_

Shinji bolted upright, and suddenly found himself horribly unbalanced. He yelped, and reached for a handhold even as he mentally resigned himself to landing face-

Huh. That was odd. The ground wasn't getting any closer. He wondered for a second just who had turned off the Earth's gravity.

Then the feeling of an arm around his waist fully registered. Shinji paled slightly. The arm was far too large to be the little girl's- or anyone else's that Shinji knew, for that matter.

The boy remained stiff as a board as he was pulled upright. Then, once his feet were firmly planted on the ground, he turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin.

The largest woman he'd ever seen was looming behind him. Just when he'd thought things couldn't get any weirder, too. The woman was easily nine feet tall, and lanky as hell, armed with some sort of bizarre fusion of stone slab and a sword, and all she wore was some sort of armored skirt.

Shinji blushed as he caught sight of solid proof that the figure was a woman.

_'Hu-huge!'_

But all that paled in comparison with her eyes. One was a dimly glowing red, and the other a hauntingly familiar green; and both burned with barely restrained bloodlust.

Another explosion shook the ground, and Shinji stumbled...

...Only to be gently caught by the giant woman. It was then that Shinij realized that none of the woman's bloodlust was directed towards him.

As if she had heard him, the lanky woman sank to the ground in a genuflection, one hand still firmly clutching the stone sword.

Memory interjected-

teetered-

and then cascaded across Shinji's mind.  
_  
"You will pilot it!"_

_"...Evangelion Shogoki!"_

_"...sync ratio at..."_

_"...-one berserk!"_

_"...is my purpose."_

_"...was an adult kiss..."_

Despair.

Worry.

The world was ending... everything falling apart. Everyone dead. Everyone was dead.

He had **failed**.

_"Misato-sensei!"_

No. Not everyone. Confusion. Up was up, down was down, yet everything was so wrong. But they were alive. How? A second chance?

Hope danced through nerves like grease lightning. Consolidated into furious determination.

Native memory surged above the din of half-remembered thoughts. Consciousness reasserted itself. Shinji's eyes focused on the giant still bowing before him.

"Shogoki." The name was whispered, reverent; as if any loud noise might startle reality back into order. Shinji would later swear up and down that the woman- no, Shogoki- smiled.

He smiled back, his expression suddenly edged with wild-eyed brutality.

"Destroy the angel."

Shogoki launched herself into the air with a roar of delight.

_**"What is it you wish for?"**_

Shinji turned, and pantomimed a gun with his left hand. The pitiful thing that called itself an 'Eva' hung forgotten in his right. He aimed the 'barrel' of his 'gun' at Ramiel, who was desperately fending off Shogoki's powerful strokes.  
_  
'Not this time.'_

"Bang."

Stone cut through ossessed flesh.

Shogoki landed with a crash in front of him, just as Ramiel's blood fell in a crimson rain. She cocked her head as the liquid splattered across the concrete.

The gray-skinned woman shook her head like a wet dog, scattering blood everywhere. Then she let out a bellowing scream, a warcry challenging all who heard it.

A challenge to those that called themselves 'Angels.'

Shinji's lips quirked into a tight smile at the thought. He once would have shivered in fear at the thought. But now...

Let them come.

_'I will not lose, not this time.'_

END


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